I'm putting together a product that is great for building links. It does take some work and effort, but it can be really worthwhile.

I tried this with a client/friend and we've had really good success.

Basically, it's to create and submit templates. It's similar to article marketing, in that you get a link from the directories, but what you really hope is someone uses your artilces on their sites, creating more links.

But templates are even better than articles, because by adding your link(s) to your templates, then submitting them, if others use them on their sites and blogs, you get SITE WIDE links.

For me, I like creating templates a lot more than writing articles. You may be the same, or not, and this may not be for everyone...Even with me organizing this for you and automating the account creation (but not submitting, yet), it still takes time and effort.

Giving away free templates is also a great way to build content for the bookmarking and social sites. Create a blogger blog, add a free blogger template, submit the template, then bookmark the blogger blog, building link juice you can pass on to other resources of your's.

Right now, I'm creating a bot that will register accounts with the sites that require registration...About half of the sites do. I'm also done with this.

I'm also creating a list of login/submit links to take you directly to the relevant pages.

Then, I need to write a report with some of the tips we discovered.

I'll then post it here...AFter that, I'll try to write a bot that will do some of the actual submission, but it's harder than you may think, as each site uses so many different categories.

Again, you can get some great links on high profile sites without spamming them, plus have the added benefit of others using your templates that contain your links.

If you could combinee that with some of the software that creates themes automatically, you'd have a system that could almost be run on autopilot. And, how about modifying the RSS pheed part of the script to add your link to each item in the pheed? The possibilities to explore this are endless.

Exactly...

Some of the most popular themes and templates have been downloaded 1000s of times. My friend has had one of her template downloaded over 500 times, and we think it's been installed on at least 150 sites (that included her links), all giving her site-wide backlinks.

Think if you can create 50 themes, each get installed 100 times (over time). That's sitewide links on 5000 different sites.

And the possibilities are endless...Most IMers think of "content" as articles. In reality, many types of media are content. And giving away free templates is great camauflage.

An example: Say you're in a long-tail health related niche. Create a WP blog that gives away 4 free health related templates. These templates link back to your blog.

Now, you can go to various health related forums and post about your "free gift" for them. You're far less likely to get in trouble doing this than other forum "spam".

Submit the same templates to the relevant directories to build link juice back to your blog. Then pass the link juice on to your niche money site.

I use Artisteer to create templates...I spend about 20 minutes to get a real good looking template. At this point, I can then easily convert it to 1, 2 and 3 column templates in seconds, and can do this for each HTML, Blogger, WP and Joomla.

So, I can do about 12 good-looking templates in about half an hour. It's much faster than I can write articles and I enjoy it a lot more.

Submitting takes more time and not all submissions work, as some sites are erratic on aproving submissions. But this can be a very powerful, long term, legit way to buld links.

BUT this looks great in theory but is not so easy to achieve in real life...
I tried the method myself so I can contribute a bit here (I even found a link where somebody shares my view on this but didnt bookmark it - basically he checked as an example a wp theme wich was downloaded over the years almost 70k times if I recall it correctly - a huuuge number - then he checked the footprint and found like 4 sites using the templates leaving the footer in place)

1. you need to distribute a really good looking theme otherwise dont waste your time - have a look at the places like DP and see what kind of themes they are submitting nowadays - these are magazine style templates and some of these are really high quality

2. Meaning you have to invest some money or are at least very good at designing the stuff yourself

3. You are competing against a huge number of free templates - people need to "install" your template and actually use it - download numbers mean "nothing"

4. when hiring a theme submitter - (which I did) be aware of the fact that most if not all of them are submitting always to their own thread - meaning they keep a thread on different forums alive and your theme is page 50 in this thread!

5. I guess I was not the only realizing this so a lot of seo people set up their own theme distribution site - type in free wp theme in google and you will see how many theme site are out there

6. Most people remove the links from the footer so you better encrypt the footer link

7. Imo this is more a long term project dont expect links tomorrow and most probably the designers offering these sponsored links are making the better deal...

as always: Just my 2 cents...

4 sites out of 70,000 downloads? My own testing showed better results than that. I've had better results selling templatesas WSOs.

>1. you need to distribute a really good looking theme
>otherwise dont waste your time - have a look at the places
>like DP and see what kind of themes they are submitting
>nowadays - these are magazine style templates and some of
>these are really high quality

Yes, you do need to use quality templates.

>2. Meaning you have to invest some money or are at least
>very good at designing the stuff yourself

Yes, I recommend Artisteer and some decent graphic skills.

>3. You are competing against a huge number of free templates
>- people need to "install" your template and actually use it
>- download numbers mean "nothing"

Yes, this is why you need to promote (link to) the templates you submit, building your own link juice. Almost all template directories give a dofollow link. If you do some bookmarking, etc to this page, you can gain good link juice.

>4. when hiring a theme submitter - (which I did) be aware of
>the fact that most if not all of them are submitting always
>to their own thread - meaning they keep a thread on
>different forums alive and your theme is page 50 in this
>thread!

Forums weren't/aren't a big part of my strategy, although creating a blog that gives away a few free templates is a good camauflage site to use when building forum profiles.

>5. I guess I was not the only realizing this so a lot of seo
>people set up their own theme distribution site - type in
>free wp theme in google and you will see how many theme site
>are out there

Those that accept submissions are another linking opportunity. The links aren't limited to those in the templates themselves.

>6. Most people remove the links from the footer so you
>better encrypt the footer link

Yep...There's a few ways to address this.

>7. Imo this is more a long term project dont expect links
>tomorrow and most probably the designers offering these
>sponsored links are making the better deal...

Yes, it is a long term strategy that takes effort. It should also be thought of as a content developement strategy...Content is the first step, then comes linking and SEO.

If you create templates, then build 2.0 sites like Hubpages and Squidoo et al, and give away free templates, no one will complain, and it will be easy to build links to these sites.

www.dombom.com/iframes/QuickIndexBotBom.zip

It contains a bot and some strategies for getting domains indexed quickly...And it will also build links to established domains.

I've also included an RSS file so that with just a few quick mods, you'll have an RSS file to submit that links to the better resources that link to you.

This strategy is for hosted domains only and won't work for third party pages and blogs like Squidoo or Blogger, etc.

While the main purpose is to get new domains indexed quickly, it's also a great way to get some good and easy links.

These are sites that check your domain "value", IP address, backlinks, and other site related info. It includes sites like Alexa and Archive.org and (almost all) link back to your domain.

The homepage PRs range from 0-9, with most above PR4.

The bot "QuickIndexBotBom" will add your domain to the top 15 resources.

The top URLs that have dofollow links back to your domain have been formatted for you in:
RSS
BB Code
HTML

This is so you can easily add links to the pages that link back to you...

It's 7 am and I need to get some sleep.

http://dombom.com/WSO/bumplate/Bumplate1.zip

How to use templates for content and promotion...includes a report, tips, links to template directories and an account creator that registers you at about 15-20 template direcories that require them.

Sorry I'm so late, this took more work than I thought.

The Bumplate Marketing package looks great. I was wondering if you happen to know of a plugin for WordPress that could create a theme gallery like you see on so many of those sites that give away free themes?

Thanks.

Tony

>Here's the Bumplate Marketing package:
>
>http://dombom.com/WSO/bumplate/Bumplate1.zip
>
>How to use templates for content and promotion...includes a
>report, tips, links to template directories and an account
>creator that registers you at about 15-20 template
>direcories that require them.
>
>Sorry I'm so late, this took more work than I thought.

Hi Tony,

I had the same idea...Seems like another good way to build a decent site using User Generated Content.

I'm sorry, I don't know what the plugin is. If anyone knows please post it here, I'd be interested in it too.

I was thinking more along the lines of a pluging because manually creating and inserting thumbnail images could get tedious real quick. It would also be nice if there was a download button and voting option. Maybe a shopping cart plugin would come close to doing the trick.

Just some thoughts.

I'll keep looking and report back when I find anything interesting.

Tony

Hey Tony,

I did find this:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-theme-showcase-plugin/

Also, for those that use Artisteer, it will create screenshots for WP themes.

Hey Kurt,

Nice find! I'm on my way to check this baby out!

Thanks.

Tony

Doesn't look like it adds a download link for people to download the templates.

We need to find out the name of the plugin that's being used on those WP blogs....

Yeah, I just noticed that. It does a beautiful job with the screenshots though.

I'll keep looking on my end and report back anything that looks interesting.

Thanks.

closest thing without a script:

downloadmanger plugin which lets you use customized urls
themeswitcher plugin
vote plugin
post template plugin

Keep us posted on the response from your emails.

I am more or less pleased with my "low cost" template site - the best would be a custom programed script...but for now I am good

use the suggested plugins and you will be set within a couple of hours..

I'm glad those are working out well for you. I'm still on the lookout for more of an "all-in-one" solution. I don't mind paying for something, especially if it saves me some time.

Thanks for your input.

By the way, Kurt, have you found anything interesting?

Thanks.

>>Thanks for sharing those blue sky.
>>
>>Keep us posted on the response from your emails.
>
>
>
>I am more or less pleased with my "low cost" template site -
>the best would be a custom programed script...but for now I
>am good
>
>use the suggested plugins and you will be set within a
>couple of hours..

Hey Tony,

I haven't found anything...Sorry I couldn't be of more help.